Bizarre New World: Population Explosion (Graphic Novel) – Review

By Skipper Martin (writer), Christopher Provencher (Art), Wes Dzioba (Colors)

I guess I should have read the back cover first. You see, the synopsis on the back cover states that Paul Krutcher, the world’s first flying man, is no longer alone in the sky and must negotiate the insanity of everybody suddenly gaining the ability of flight to make a mad dash from California to Arizona in response to a desperate, teary phone call from his son. Unfortunately, what I didn’t get from the story is where Paul was going in his desperation. We see him race home and we see him pack for a trip, but at no point do we get a simple “I’ve got to get to Arizona,” which would have been a big help. Maybe if you’ve read this title before you knew the details of Paul’s personal life, but a new reader wouldn’t, unless, as I said, you looked at the back cover first.

Unfortunately, Paul’s race home and his race out of town seemed quite a bit repetitive. The book has several pages of Paul flying or driving in earnest while people are flying haphazardly all around him. The sequences serve to paint the picture of chaos that ensues when all of humanity suddenly takes flight, but there was not enough variety to keep me interested and the sequence seemed overly long. Ultimately, Paul reunites with his son and the story turns into in rumination on what it means to be different.

Paul is a likable enough main character, a simple, everyday Joe trying to find his place in the world and obviously a good guy with his heart in the right place. Despite the presence of a likable main character, there is just not enough in this book to really grab me and insure that I’ll come back for more. (Grade: C)

– Arthur Cooke

A Second Opinion

Like Paul’s character, I felt cheated when it was revealed that all humans were gaining the ability of flight (Bizarre New World #2, #3). It was like everything unique and special about this book was taken away; all the long, expository conversations and visual narratives were for nothing. Unfortunately, with all the magic taken away, Population Explosion feels like a train that’s lost its steam.

The story of this graphic novel is spread out over 48 pages and is paced similarly as the previous issues. I was hoping, given the new direction of this series, that things would open up and give us a bigger picture of how the world has changed, but we only see it through the eyes of Paul, who has become a man of words and not action.

The conversations about flight and how these powers will affect the world are discussed, but they honestly just feel like any conversation you’d hear from people at a comic convention. After a while, it all becomes stale – we’ve heard these discussions before. The only real meat to this story is Paul’s race home to find his son. It’s a plot thread that works, but could have been resolved so much sooner. I wanted more from this book, but the pace of this series just hasn’t picked up for me. (Grade: C)

– J. Montes